Fighting new nuclear power stations in the UK

EDF is Eagerly Destroying Fields even though it doesn’t yet have permission to build the reactors - nor does it have approval for the reactor design, or even a final investment decision.

The new EPR reactor design will produce radioactive waste that is so toxic that it will have to be stored on site for over 100 years. The dangers associated with flooding, terrorist attack and accidental leakage are totally unacceptable.

NO MORE NUCLEAR BAILOUTS

The movement against the government's so-called 'nuclear renaissance' is winning….but we must keep up the pressure. Out of the eight new nuclear power stations supported by the coalition government when it came into power, only two are still on the table: Hinkley in Somerset and Sizewell in Suffolk.

French-owned EDF Energy - the owner of Hinkley and Sizewell - is pressuring the government to increase the range of hidden subsidies on offer in a desperate bid to attract interest from sceptical investors. THIS MUST NOT HAPPEN.

If EDF gets its way, it will be a double whammy for us - and for future generations. It will mean we pay twice: once as taxpayers and once as consumers through our energy bills.

We say put the £60bn earmarked for 'new nuclear' into a cleaner, greener, fairer future. The way forward is through energy reduction and greater investment into research and development to make renewable energy and energy storage fit for the 21st century.

We need to create a long term sustainable energy plan that is based on meeting people's needs rather than making profits for investors. In May, energy secretary Charles Hendry told ministers at a select committee hearing that the government’s energy policy would be robust enough without including nuclear in the mix. It's time we moved energy policy forwards rather than backwards.

NUCLEAR IS NOT THE ANSWER

....Chernobyl
The crisis is far from over: the sarcophagus covering the doomed Russian reactor is falling apart. Only this year, governments finally approved the funding for a new one. The human population in the most heavily contaminated territories is in decline. In Belarus 80% of children were born healthy before Chernobyl. Now, just 26 years later, only 20% of children are born healthy.

.....Fukushima
Thanks to people power, all of Japan's reactors have now been turned off. For the first time in over half a century Japan is nuclear free. However, the crisis at Fukushima is far from over.

The Japanese people are footing the bill. The company behind the power station, Tepco, has had to be re-nationalised because of the spiralling cost of compensation and the ongoing attempts to stabilise the reactors.

Many people are still living in heavily contaminated areas that should have been evacuated.

Food across Japan is heavily contaminated and people are being encouraged to support the farmers of Fukushima by eating it.

The triple meltdown is still in full swing.

All of the fuel pools in reactors 1,2,3 & 4 are in bad condition.

The pool in reactor 4 is of particular concern. Thousands of highly radioactive spent fuel rods are at risk of further explosions. If such an event occurs, high levels of radioactive contamination could spread as far as Tokyo and wipe out Japan's commercial infrastructure.

WE WANT A FUTURE, NOT A DISASTER

More information coming soon.

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What's New

Sunday marked the first anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster caused by an earthquake and tsunami that swept across Japan killing 20,000 people.

At the weekend two survivors of the disaster, Makoto Ishiyama and his wife Akiko Ishiyama, shared their experience of the disaster with protesters at the site of a potential new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset.

It is seen as the new front line in the fight against nuclear power in Britain, with numerous protests and legal challenges having targeted the proposed "Hinkley Point C" plant.

The one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami on Japan's north east coast was marked in the UK over the weekend by the first 24-hour blockade of a nuclear site in over 30 years.

Following a demonstration by over 1,000 people at Hinkley Point C on the Severn estuary in Somerset, which veteran campaigner Martyn Lowe described as the largest anti-nuclear action in this country since protests against the Torness power station in 1979, 100 people blocked the main entrance to the site, stopping all traffic from entering or leaving for over 24 hours.

The first large-scale anti-nuclear protest in the country for years injected a dash of colour to the misty plain of Hinkley Point as flag-waving demonstrators blocked the main road to the nuclear complex at the weekend.

The protesters, numbering at least 1,000, were joined by environmentalists Jonathon Porritt and Caroline Lucas MP to decry the Government’s plan for more nuclear power stations.

On the first anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, anti-nuclear campaigners claimed two records in two days. The mass protest at Hinkley Point nuclear power station on Saturday attracted more than 1,000 people from all over the UK – the largest protests against a the construction of a nuclear power station in four decades.

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Stop New Nuclear is a campaign to stop new nuclear power stations and is an alliance of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, CND Cymru, Stop Nuclear Power Network UK, Kick Nuclear, South West Against Nuclear, Shutdown Sizewell, Sizewell Blockaders, Trident Ploughshares, Stop Hinkley, and Rising Tide UK